Watauga BOE Member Aceto Files Response With State Board After Complaint Filed Seeking His Removal

Published Friday, October 11, 2013 at 5:03 pm

By Jesse Wood

Oct. 11, 2013. Two days after local Democrats filed a complaint, seeking the removal of two Republican members from the Watauga County Board of Elections for a number of alleged actions, Board Member Bill Aceto has a filed a response to the complaint with the State Board of Elections.

When contacted on Thursday about the complaint, Aceto wasn’t initially aware of the complaint filed by Stella Anderson, Jesse Presnell and Ian O’Keefe.

Aceto speaks before hte State Board of Elections in September. Photo by Lonnie Webster

“But my understanding is 3 members of the local Democratic Party are the ones who filed the complaint. The complaint is obviously very partisan and that a small group of local democrats are unhappy,” Aceto wrote in an email on Thursday. “I will make a formal response to the SBOE and will be happy to share my response with you. The folks I have talked to locally are tired of hearing about the Watauga County Board of Elections in the news.”

On Friday afternoon, Aceto sent his response to several reporters.

“I respectfully request that the State Board of Elections summarily dismiss the Complaint by reason that it fails to allege any violation of Chapter 163 of the North Carolina General Statutes,” Aceto wrote in his response to the State Board of Elections regarding the complaint.

While giving his side of the story on 12 of the 15 allegations, he notes that three of them are either “simply false” or “false.”

The other Republican member of the Watauga County Board of Elections Luke Eggers hasn’t responded to requests for comment.

See his entire response below. See more stories on the Watauga County Board of Elections here.